Perhaps even more CEO accolades could be on the way for Steve Jobs, as Apple's stock price is forecast to rise to new heights this year according to AppleInsider via a Wall Street analyst.
Gene Munster, senior research analyst with Piper Jaffray said that domestic Mac retail data for the December quarter show a twenty-six percent year-over-year growth. Wall Street also feels that Apple should see about nineteen percent growth over the three-month frame.
Mac unit growth in 2009 consistently stayed above twenty percent. "Keep in mind, before the economic slowdown began Mac units were up 30-40% (year over year) on a quarterly basis," Munster wrote in a note to investors. "While hype surrounding the expected tablet will be focus of Apple long-term strategy, we believe we will see meaningful near-term upside from the Mac business."
Munster also stated he estimates Apple sold 3.1 million Macs for the December quarter, which would be Apple's best ever. He also expects that the company sold 9.3 million iPhones, which was helped by debuts in international markets.
Monday also brought about Apple's formal announcement of its media event on January 27. With all the speculation, Munster thought that could raise Apple's share prices even higher. "We believe Apple will show a 10-inch device and possibly a new version of iPhone software," he stated. "We continue to believe Apple will ship a tablet by the end of March, and will likely sell about 2M units in the first calendar year of sales. The tablet is not included in our model."
Piper Jaffray raised the price target for AAPL stock from $277 to $279. Of course, since the tablet was not included in the firm's model, the total could change depending on the coming announcement.
AAPL shares were trading at about $211 a share early Tuesday morning.
Image courtesy of iPhoneSpies.com
